Happy World Creativity and Innovation Week! Backed by the United Nations, the week raises awareness of the role of creativity and innovation play in making the world a better place, which is right up our street!
Since our chairman and founder Phil Jones was a member of the team that produced Manual for Streets for the Department for Transport, a guide to the design of urban, residential and lightly trafficked streets in 2007, PJA has gained extensive experience of writing and assisting in national and international design guidance and publications and designing streets and public places.
And who better to explain more than Annabel Keegan, an Associate Director in our Birmingham HQ, who joined PJA in 2011 kickstarting the company’s placemaking division.
Tell us about your background and your beginnings at PJA?
After completing my undergraduate degree in architecture, I was offered at a job at Atkins in the transport planning team in 2001.
Despite my initial reservations about the change in career direction, I stayed there for nearly five years, completed their graduate training programme and developed a passion for streets and public realm design. During my time there I also studied for a masters degree in urban design which helped me to blend together my architectural background and my new skills in transport.
During this time Phil Jones was part of the team who produced Manual for Streets. This was the first time that the design of streets considered that the ‘place’ function of a street was not automatically considered to be subservient to the ‘movement’ function. This was an exciting time for the industry, as it really strengthened the connection between people and the environment they live in and use.
I was delighted to joined PJA in 2011, after the publication of Manual for Streets brought together the transport planning and urban design aspects in designing residential streets. I set up a new urban design team– which is now known as ‘placemaking’. There were just 10 people at PJA when I started and now there’s more than 100 across the country.
So how does good placemaking improve our quality of life?
Streets and roads make up around three-quarters of all public space – so their design, appearance, and the way they function have a huge impact on the quality of people’s lives and the appearance of our built environment. This gives us place makers a huge opportunity to make a positive impact on the quality of the places we design.
Well-designed, high quality public space also contributes to people’s health, happiness and well-being. It influences the way we choose to travel and can encourage us to use more sustainable and healthy modes of transport including walking, cycling and public transport.
Creating well-designed places is also fundamental to achieving spaces that are socially, economically and environmentally sustainable. We repeatedly see places failing, often where there is a poor relationship between buildings and the street.
Tell us more about PJA’s creativity and innovation
PJA has gone from strength to strength since the first Manual for Streets was published in 2007. We have continued to move things forward and have been involved in a number of recent policy and guidance documents.
Most recently Phil and Associate Director Adrian Lord helped produce LTN 1/20. This accompanied the Government’s Gear Change policy in March 2020 to boost cycling and walking and tackle health and environmental challenges. Thousands of miles of higher standard, protected cycle routes in towns and cities are set to be built, monitored by the new inspectorate Active Travel England.
We also have an engineering division at PJA too, so we can deliver plans from concept design right though to delivery.
We have always been leaders in the field and try to practice what we preach. Clients come to us because we are innovators, and we have the appetite to work on great projects. Our local teams across the country mean that we can offer a dedicated, tailored approach.
Tell us about a project you are working on
I mainly work on street and public realm focussed projects for a range of public sector and private sector clients. I am currently working on an exciting project transforming three key streets in Stratford-upon-Avon town centre. We’re redesigning Bridge Street, High Street and Union Street to create a better balance of pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles.
Our vision is to create a town centre which is full of life and meets the needs of the local community, businesses and visitors. The designs mean that there will be less traffic in the centre, making it safer and more inviting for pedestrians and cyclists. More people will be attracted to the town centre and will spend longer and more money in the local economy.
I have also recently been appointed by the Northumberland Coast AONB Partnership to prepare a new design guide focussing on the public realm around roads and highways. The Northumberland Coast is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty covering an area just over 50 square miles. My role is to prepare a new document which will provide advice on the design, maintenance and management of roads and public realm in the area to ensure the highest standards of design in this valuable landscape.
Get in touch with Annabel: [email protected]
Annabel Keegan, Associate Director
Annabel is an Associate Director at PJA and leads our placemaking team based in our Longbridge office.
She is a qualified urban designer and transport planner with a background in architecture and has over 15 years’ practical experience in large multidisciplinary consultant teams, specialising in the delivery of design-led projects both within the public and private sector.
Find out more about our services here
Interested in joining us on our journey? Owing to a growing portfolio of exciting projects, we are recruiting. Our current vacancies are here. If you share our passion for transport planning, engineering and placemaking, we would love to hear from you.
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